Meat is the obscure aspect of our bodies: that we are made of bloody substance, of sinewy material, is one of the great taboos of our existence. The tissue beneath the skin's surface is repressed, yet this unimaginable reality has exerted a peculiar fascination since the dawn of cultural history. Not only is it central to the definition of Christian doctrine that God became flesh in Jesus and that this flesh is said to have even resurrected, but modern cultural representations like pornography and splatter movies also exert an undeniable allure. In his cultural history, Volker Demuth brings the ever-present yet rarely acknowledged material basis of human existence into focus, illuminating our relationship with ourselves. It becomes clear that people could only approach their flesh by distancing themselves from it.